Speed up voter ID information case, ACLU says

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Lawyers led by the American Civil Liberties Union asked a state judge Wednesday to speed up a case asking him to order Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration to do a better job ensuring that the voting public knows that they do not have to show photo identification on Election Day.

Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson on Wednesday gave the Corbett administration seven days to respond to the ACLU’s request, but Simpson had already let five days go by before asking the government to respond to the ACLU’s request.

Witold J. Walczak, the ACLU’s legal director in Pennsylvania, said the schedule that Simpson laid out is acting as an effective denial because it will not allow his side enough time before the Nov. 6 election to appeal to the state Supreme Court.

“The writing’s on the wall,” Walczak said. “This is effectively a denial of the petition.”

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Simpson halted the requirement Oct. 2 over concerns some voters would be disenfranchised by the state’s inability to ensure every registered voter could get a free photo ID. But the ACLU-led legal team that won Simpson’s earlier decision said Corbett’s administration has done virtually nothing to change its multimillion-dollar media campaign or the perception that a photo ID is required, or to correct false information that it continued to disseminate after Oct. 2.

The broader legal challenge to the law’s constitutionality is continuing in the state’s court and is scheduled to resume in December. Simpson’s injunction allows poll workers to ask for photo ID on Nov. 6, but does not require voters to show one, and his injunction allows the photo ID requirement to go into force for future elections.

Ron Ruman, a spokesman for Corbett’s Department of State, which oversees elections, insisted that the state’s ads clearly say that ID is not required.

The script goes, “If you care about this election. If you care about this election. If you have an opinion. If you want a voice. If you want a voice. If you want to make a difference. Then show it. Show it. Show it. Show it. When voting in Pennsylvania this election day, Nov. 6, you will be asked but not required to show a photo ID. To learn more about how to get a photo ID for future elections, and the voter ID law, call 1-877-votespa or visit votespa.com.”

Corbett, a Republican, signed the politically charged law in March over protests by Democrats, the NAACP, the AARP, the League of Women Voters, good-government groups, labor unions and advocates for the poor that it would disenfranchise voters. Democrats also accused Republicans of using it to try to boost the GOP’s prospects in the presidential election year by erecting barriers to the polls for the poor, young adults and minorities. Republicans insisted the law was a common-sense measure to guard against election fraud.

Pennsylvania’s new law is among the toughest in the nation.

The prior law required identification only for people voting in a polling place for the first time and it allowed non-photo documents such as utility bills or bank statements. The new law requires each voter to show a particular form of photo ID, such as a driver’s license, passport, active duty military identification, nursing home ID or college student ID.